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AGAS CONVEYING APPARATUS.

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. of the gasconduits,and to provide means UNITED ,l S112x151?S` PATENT .OFFICE THOMAS A. OONNOLLY `Aun ANTHONYA GONNOLLY, or wAsIIINGTON, n. o.

GAS-CONVI-:Yme APPARATUS.

SPECIFICATION forming part ofLetters Patent No. 331,686, dated December 1, 1885.

.To all whom-15 may concern? Be it known that we, THoMAs A. CONNOLLY and ANTHONY A. CONNOL'LY, citizens of the United States, residing at Washington, in the District of Columbia, have inventedcertain new and useful Improvements in Gas-Conveyfollowing to be afull, clear, and exact description of the invention, such will enable others skilled inthe art to which it appertains Ato Our invention hasrelation to systems for conveying gas, and has particular reference to the conveyance of natural gas.

The object of our invention is to prevent, as far as may be praticable, the leakage or escape of the gas from the joints or couplings whereby any leakage that may occurshall be easily detected.

Our invention consists, first, in the employment as a sealing medium for the joints and other` parts of a gas-conduit or conveying system of a gas or gaseous body of a greater density and specic gravity than the natural gas 5 second, in the employment as. a filling for joint-casings and other appropriate portions of a gas-conveying system of a gas or vapor having a distinct and easily perceptible odor, such odor being that of the vaporous filling itself or an odor artificially imparted to it.

Our invention is susceptible of being carried into effect in a great variety of ways.

In the accompanying drawings we have i1- lustrated two of the many ways in which our gas seal may be employed.

-Iteferring to Figure l, A A represent the adjacent ends of two sections of a gas-conduit, and B the surrounding chamber, having inlet b for the pipe c, which leads from the tank or generator D. This chamber B may be in continuous communication with the tank D, so that any leakage of the sealinggas may be replaced from the tank or generator.

Fig. 2 shows a method ofv applying our gas seal in conduits wherein two pipes are used, one being inclosedwithin the other. In the latter case the entire space e between the con- Whilewe have shown both the chamber B light and highly penetrative natural gas.

(No model.)

nication with the supply of sealing-gas, we do i vthe chambers or casings being closed to prevent the escape of said sealing-gas.

The gas or vapor seal may be applied to many of the forms of j oint-casings or conduitinclosing pipes by admitting it to the interior of the vsame under pressure through any of the inlets thereto. The sealing-gas should be Under a Pfelllagleater,-than.....th.e.-normal pressureff'fmthe natural gas, and said sealinggas sliould be of such density that it will not tend to pass through the joints of the conduit, although the latter may be incapable of preventing the passage or escape of the very The sealing-gas should also be of greater specific gravity and density than the atmospheric air, so as to have little, if any, tendency to rise or escape from its confines.

yAs a sealing-gas we prefer to employ carbonio acid; but any other`vr or equivalent gas or vapor adapted for the purpose Inay be employed.

The sealing-gas will serve to greatly, if not totally, prevent the escape of the natural gas through the joints or seams, and, being under a greater pressure than the natural gas, will prevent the diffusion of thelatter,while,should any of the latter escape, its admixture with the sealing-gas will deprive it of its high eX- plosive or combustible properties.

The sealing-gas may be an odorous gas, in which event any leakage from the casing un-r der excessive pressure of the natural gas or from other causes will be detected by the odor of the sealing-gas necessarily escaping therewith. In this way many of the dangerous explosions which have already taken place, occurring from the presence of odorless natural gas, are prevented. Should the sealing-gas be itself naturally inodorous, it may be mixed with or charged with odorous mediums in the form of vapor, such as sulphureted hydrogen.

We are aware of the fact that in a great number of the pipe-joint couplings now in use the space inclosed between the collars and the ends of the pipes contains atmospheric'air at the ordinary pressure, and we do not, there- IOO fore, include air as a sealinggas unless it be at a greater degree of pressure than theV atmosphere.

What We claim as our invention is- 1. In systems for the conveyance of gas, a

seal for the joints of conduits or pipes, con-A sisting of a'xed gas or vapor of greater specie gravity than air, inclosed Within a chamber surrounding the conduit or pipe.

2. In systems for the conveyance of gas, a seal for the joints of connected conduit sections or pipes, consisting of a ixedgasor vapor under pressure, inclosed in a chamber surrounding or adjacent to the j oint-seams.

3. In systems for the conveyance of gas, a seal consisting of a lined gas or vapor under pressure and of greater density than the conveyed gas, contained in a chamber or casing surrounding or adjacent to the joint-seam.

4. In systems for the conveyance of gas, the combination, with the conduit or pipe sections, of chambers or chambered casngs surrounding the pipes or conduits, and containing a fixed gas or vapor of greater density than air.

5. In systems for the conveyance of practically inodorous gas, the combinatiomwith the teetions of conduit or pipe, of chambers or chambered casings surrounding the former and containing a sealing gas or vapor having commingled therewith an odorous gas, substantially as described.

'or vapor of greater specific gravity than air.

8. The combination, with a gas conduit or pipe, of chambered casings or chambers adjacent to the joints, and adapted for the receptionl of a sealing gas or vapor, with a gas generator or tank for supplyingv said sealing gas or vapor to said chambers.

9. A gas-conduit having its jointed sections sealed bya fixed gas or vapor of greater` density and pressure than the gas within the conduit, said fixed and sealing gas being inclosed Within a casing or casings.

10. A seal' for natural-gas conduits, consist-j,

ing of carbonic-acid gas inclosed in a chamber or casing formed Within the jointcouplings or,

around the joints.

' In testimony7 whereof we affix our signatures in presence of two Witnesses.

THOMAS A. GONNOLLY.

ANTHONY A. ooNNoLLY- Vitnesses:

H. A. HALL, J. H. ScrnNWoon.

It is hereby certified that in Lettere Patent No. 331,686, granted December 1, 1885, upon the application of Thomas A. Connolly and Anthony A. Connolly, of Washington, District ol" Columbia, for en improvement in Gas Conveying Apparatus, errors ap, pear in the printed specification requiring correction as follows: In line 50, page l, the reference letter F should be inserted after the reference letter E, and at the end of line 53, seme page, after the word do insert the word not; and that the said Letters.

Patent should be read with these corrections therein that the same may conform to the record ot' the case iu the Patent Oce.

Signed, countersigned, and sealed this 8th day of December, A. D. 1885.

[SEAL] H. L. MULDROW,

i Acting Secretary Qf the Interior. Conntersigned:

M. V. MONTGOMERY,

Commissioner of Patents. 

